Magnesium belongs among four most plentiful metal elements in the body, together with calcium, potassium and sodium. The disorders associated with magnesium deficiency are complex and usually accompanied by multiple metabolic and nutritional disturbances. The clinical manifestations of magnesium deficiency is anorexia, nausea, vomiting, lethargy, weakness, personality change, tetany, and tremor and muscle fasciculation [The Merck Manual, 17th Ed. (1999)]. Hypomagnesemia, the decrease of plasma magnesium, leads to neuromascular irritability. Magnesium deficiency may occur on loss of body fluids, excessive renal excretion, and may be associated with nutritional deficit, diarrhea, diabetes, pancreatitis, etc. Magnesium depletion may further lead to hypocalcemia and all the grave symptoms resulting therefrom. It was found that people who drink water that is deficient in magnesium generally appear more susceptible to a variety of medical conditions, mainly cardiovascular disorders.
Drinking water should preferably complete the magnesium supplied in food up to the daily required value. Recommended daily intake for adults is between 200 and 400 mg of magnesium [The Merck Manual, 17th Ed. (1999)], and sometimes more. However, tap water frequently contains little magnesium; for example, the tap water available in big US cities often has less than 10 mg/l of magnesium [Azoulay A. et al.: J. Intern. Med. 16 (2001) 168-75]. Therefore, the modern principles of preventive medicine and healthy nutrition would require higher intake of magnesium, which can most easily be achieved by drinking mineral water or other bottled water with higher magnesium content. Many of the commercially available bottled waters have very low magnesium contents; moreover, some bottled waters, as well as some tap waters, contain too much sodium [ibid], which should be kept as low as possible in healthy diets. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide drinking water fortified with magnesium, and exhibiting low sodium content.
EP 1460042 relates to a process of producing potable water of higher magnesium content by dissolving a magnesium salt, preferably by mixing magnesium and potassium carbonates. The complex system comprises many compartments and separated pre-dissolving steps, whereas other cations, such as potassium, are incorporated. U.S. Pat. No. 6,761,289 relates to pressurized containers for preparing calcium and magnesium bicarbonate solutions, further containing additives such as sodium salts, under pressures ranging from 30 to 70 atmospheres. This high-pressure technology is too complex and provides modest magnesium concentrations. US 2005/0255174 relates to preparing magnesium bicarbonate, comprising mixing magnesium carbonate suspension in carbonated water. The complex system exhibits problems in regard to stirring the suspensions, dosing the substrate powders, and adjusting the pH. It is therefore another object of this invention to provide a method of supplementing drinking water with magnesium without the drawbacks of the prior art.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a method capable of supplying commercial volumes of drinking water fortified with magnesium.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a system for manufacturing drinking water with increased magnesium concentration but with low concentration of other cations.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a non-pressurized, technologically simple, system for supplying health-promoting drinking water.
It is also an object of this invention to provide drinking water containing at least 500 mg/l magnesium bicarbonate.
Other objects and advantages of present invention will appear as the description proceeds.